Happy Rat Year!
After welcoming the western New Year, we Vnese again celebrated our Tet. Of course, in VN, the event was celebrated seriously and funnier. Family members gathered, many came back from foreign land to wish each other many best wishes, beautiful words. Tet is also an occasion to eat many tradition Tet dishes that during the year people might not have time to make them. Many dishes of Tet are made to last at least three days because during these three days, no shops will open, we will just eat and play cards. On the first day of the year, people will go to the pagode to pray for a good year to come, to thank for the stable year that past, to remember those who passed away.
Anyway, Tet for me was much more in the past than now. My family used to make tradition sticky rice cake called banh chung, a Northern tradition rectangular cake (the Southern version is rounded) that is filled with mung beans and marinated pork, then boiled for at least 10h. Because the measure of the cake is about 20x20cm, and each family make more than 10, we used to cook in a big container over night. The fun part of waiting for Tet is to stay awake to watch the banh chung. We often finish wrapping around 6h in the evening, then start boiling them shortly after. Everyone, mostly men gather, play guitar, singing, playing cards while the night sweeps in unnoticed with the slight chill air of spring. I used to not allowed to be around, must be bed ;-(. This year, some friends had an idea to make this cake ourselves instead of buying, so they set up to prepare ingredients for 10 cakes, and off we go. The result was quite satisfied, I will post picture soon. I also made thit kho, ca kho, dua muoi, gio lua, gio bo...yeah, nostalgy comes out of me ;-).
I also went to pagoda to pray and listen to monk's teaching. One of the nice thing to expect when going to the pagoda is to have a great monk teaches and explains symbols in Buddhism. This year we learn about maitreya (friendship, benevolent), Happy Buddha. In VN, we worship HIM as a big fat stomach buddha sitting with 5 or 6 children on his shoulder, knees...His statue is always made with a big smile. That smile symbolises for true happiness, a real smile. We have different type of smiles, every time we smile, people can read how we feel like, smile even when we are sad...His stomach is big (mind you, not because he is drinking too much beer or anything ;-)) because he wants to take all our sadness, worries, angers...to himself, so we can be happy, and smile like he does. That is to explain that we have to share problems with our peers, husbands, wives, friends, and we have to take time to think for ourselves instead of getting involved deeply in mundane things like 8h for work, 8h for sleep...even when we are tired, we should take care of our souls, release stress, worries...so that we can smile a real happy smile. The five children represents the 5 or 6 weaknesses that we human usually are lured into: money, power, sex...
Well, so much for Tet. I would like to wish everyone a good Earth Rat year. Apparently, I am a Earth Horse, but my element is fire ;-). Anyway, chuc mung nam moi!
Anyway, Tet for me was much more in the past than now. My family used to make tradition sticky rice cake called banh chung, a Northern tradition rectangular cake (the Southern version is rounded) that is filled with mung beans and marinated pork, then boiled for at least 10h. Because the measure of the cake is about 20x20cm, and each family make more than 10, we used to cook in a big container over night. The fun part of waiting for Tet is to stay awake to watch the banh chung. We often finish wrapping around 6h in the evening, then start boiling them shortly after. Everyone, mostly men gather, play guitar, singing, playing cards while the night sweeps in unnoticed with the slight chill air of spring. I used to not allowed to be around, must be bed ;-(. This year, some friends had an idea to make this cake ourselves instead of buying, so they set up to prepare ingredients for 10 cakes, and off we go. The result was quite satisfied, I will post picture soon. I also made thit kho, ca kho, dua muoi, gio lua, gio bo...yeah, nostalgy comes out of me ;-).
I also went to pagoda to pray and listen to monk's teaching. One of the nice thing to expect when going to the pagoda is to have a great monk teaches and explains symbols in Buddhism. This year we learn about maitreya (friendship, benevolent), Happy Buddha. In VN, we worship HIM as a big fat stomach buddha sitting with 5 or 6 children on his shoulder, knees...His statue is always made with a big smile. That smile symbolises for true happiness, a real smile. We have different type of smiles, every time we smile, people can read how we feel like, smile even when we are sad...His stomach is big (mind you, not because he is drinking too much beer or anything ;-)) because he wants to take all our sadness, worries, angers...to himself, so we can be happy, and smile like he does. That is to explain that we have to share problems with our peers, husbands, wives, friends, and we have to take time to think for ourselves instead of getting involved deeply in mundane things like 8h for work, 8h for sleep...even when we are tired, we should take care of our souls, release stress, worries...so that we can smile a real happy smile. The five children represents the 5 or 6 weaknesses that we human usually are lured into: money, power, sex...
Well, so much for Tet. I would like to wish everyone a good Earth Rat year. Apparently, I am a Earth Horse, but my element is fire ;-). Anyway, chuc mung nam moi!
posted by Vagabonder @ 7:23 PM
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